Thelema Coast to Coast #33: September 10, 2006

Lecture by John L. Crow: The Nature of Becoming: An Examination of Aleister Crowley's Ontology and Map of Consciousness, presented at Dove & Serpent Oasis in conjunction with Hagia Sophia Chapter R+C, July 2006

A minor point of contention–what is life for but splitting hairs?–in re: a passing comment you make, John, regarding how “Jesus” might assert the existence of an immortal/immutable soul, compared to the Buddhist negation of such a spiritual quantum: you might want to check some sources. I have always understood that pre-Hellenic semitic thought made no distinction between soul and physical body; indeed, in the pre-Xtian period, there was no conception of the soul as separate and distinct from a living, physical body. The dualistic idea of a spirit animating or embodied in material form is Hellenic and derives from Plato. No Jew of 2 millenia ago would even have a language with which to conceive such a split of substance and essence. Indeed, there is no word in classical Hebrew for “soul” which would be the conceptual equivalent of the Greek “????.”

The Hebrew ??? (ruach)is more akin to the Greek “??????,” which is synonymous with the Latin “spiritus” (wind or breath) and lacks the essential intentionality and self-awareness (Will) of “????.”

BY SHEMMCADAMSON ON 08.12.07 11:08 PM

The English forms for the two untranslated Greek terms are “psyche” and “pneuma”.